Chapter 77: The One Who Watches the Scenery With Me
Faced with Shiltina’s invitation, Rast naturally did not refuse.
After all, aside from the 「Angel of Death’s Decree」, he also felt quite connected to the Nightblade 「Infinite Sword」.
Rast had not forgotten the description of the card 【『War Chariot』·Shiltina】 in the The Fool’s Library.
If their bond level—or rather, his affinity with Shiltina—could deepen further...
The next skill unlocked by the Chariot card might very well be the 「True Name Liberation」.
Rast had long coveted this skill, which could also compensate for his weaknesses in direct combat.
He was truly looking forward to the effect that his emblemary equipment, 【Iron-Crested Moon】 and 【Sevenfold Perspective】, could produce after the true name was released.
Looking at the girl in front of him, dressed in a plain white long dress, reaching her hand out to him—
Rast nodded.
“This is my honor.”
……
Beside the school infirmary was a large ginkgo grove, golden leaves scattering gently all over the ground.
The two walked across the soft lawn, at the center of which was a fountain square, where young men and women sat on benches beside the fountain, whispering sweet nothings to one another.
Rast and Shiltina blended into the scene naturally, without a hint of incongruity.
Further ahead, the old sandstone buildings and the library of the Ruins Institute, with its bright silver mirrored walls, stood in harmony as vivid flags fluttered in the wind.
Rast felt both his body and mind relaxing—the seemingly endless fog and blood moon of Frozenwater Town now felt infinitely distant and no longer important.
Of course, the greatest change came from the girl beside him.
She had taken off the crimson and white interwoven knight’s uniform and replaced it with a plain white long dress.
The Shiltina of the past had looked like a knight straight out of an epic recited by a bard—majestic, solemn, flawless—yet she carried a sense of illusionary unreality.
But now, she appeared more like a girl her age, one who loved butterflies and flowers, tangible and real.
“So this... is what it feels like.”
Shiltina gazed into the distance at the academy's scenery, whispering to herself.
Ding-ling~
Ding-ling~
The sound of a copper bell drifted on the wind, drawing closer, catching Shiltina’s attention.
It was a mobile ice cream cart, meandering through the expansive campus.
Rast noticed Shiltina’s gaze. “Want some?”
The chestnut-haired girl subconsciously shook her head.
But Rast caught a fleeting hint of curiosity in her light brown eyes.
“Forget it. Let’s just say I want some myself…”
He sighed, the memories of his days as a host reawakening in his mind. “Wait here for me.”
……
Because Starfall University was holding its 900th anniversary celebration, crowds could be seen everywhere across the campus.
By the time Rast finished waiting in the long line at the ice cream cart, holding a cone and a cup of scooped ice cream as he weaved his way back through the crowd, twenty minutes had already passed.
If this had been back when he worked at the host club… vanishing for twenty minutes in front of a customer would have surely gotten him a complaint.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, his peripheral vision caught sight of Shiltina.
She sat quietly on the bench beside the fountain, hands folded neatly on her lap.
The morning breeze gently lifted her chestnut hair and fluttered the hem of her white dress.
Sunlight cast upon her delicate, fair profile like a sculpture of ice—crystalline, serene, almost like a silent statue.
The stream of people surged past her, but upon recognizing her as the infamous 「Raid Demon」 Shiltina, they instinctively veered away, leaving a ring of emptiness around her.
Rast ignored the strange stares around him and, holding the ice cream cone and paper cup, walked straight into that empty space and sat beside Shiltina.
“Thank you.”
Shiltina accepted the strawberry cone and cautiously took a small bite.
Then she widened her eyes in surprise. “So this is what ice cream tastes like.”
“You’ve never had ice cream before?” Rast was a little surprised.
In his impression, even though she was somewhat out of sync with others, Shiltina didn’t seem like someone out of touch with modern society.
She handled smart terminals just fine.
“I suppose I have… but it was different.”
Shiltina shook her head. “Back when I was still in my first year, before I broke ties with my former team and Flan... she often brought me ice cream.”
“But I was always training. By the time I remembered it after finishing, it had already melted completely.”
“She called it ice cream, but really, it was just sugary water with cream. Totally different from what I’m eating now.”
Flan.
Rast also remembered the name.
Once ranked 18th on the Obelisk, a Nightblade of the Fertility sequence who possessed the 「Plant Whisper」 ability.
A month ago, as part of the scout team, she became eternally lost in the Nightworld Remnant at Frozenwater Town.
He recalled how, in that same disaster zone, Shiltina had unleashed her 「True Name Liberation」 twice in succession.
Among the puppets controlled by the blood moon, if there were any who could push Shiltina that far… it would only be this once-closest friend of hers.
Rast sat down on the bench and scooped a spoonful of chocolate ice cream from the cup.
“What made you suddenly want to join the celebration?”
“You left the Nightworld only to throw yourself into brutal training and study, filling every gap with intense preparation—that’s more like the ‘Raid Demon Shiltina’ style, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
Shiltina nodded.
“If it had been the old me, I wouldn’t waste even a single moment.”
“To me, the leisure and amusement of all Night Travelers in the real world were just a waste of life… time better spent strengthening one’s combat power. Only that would increase the chances of survival in the Nightworld.”
“I could only understand Flan and others who opposed me from a theoretical standpoint. I couldn’t truly feel their emotions or empathize with them.”
“To put it harshly, from my point of view, they were simply weak and falling behind because of it.”
She finished the strawberry cone in small bites and licked her tender lips, still a bit unsatisfied.
“Conquering the Nightworld, preventing the outbreak of the Twillight Calamity—”
“On a grand scale, it’s for the sake of ‘saving the world.’”
“It’s such a noble and righteous goal, unquestionably correct to the point that no matter how many lives are sacrificed or what price is paid, it’s worth it.”
“And I made that my lifelong goal, a pursuit for which I was willing to give everything, to abandon everything… to the extent that I completely ignored those beside me.”
“Like a long journey where I always fix my eyes on the distant destination, never turning to see the scenery along the way or the companions traveling with me.”
“So my break with Flan was bound to happen, no matter how close we once were.”
Rast quietly listened to Shiltina’s confession.
“Others may not agree, but it’s still a personal stance.”
He looked at her. “At the very least, I don’t dislike it.”
Rast didn’t try to comfort Shiltina, because he knew well that the seemingly delicate girl before him was not someone weak enough to need consolation.
And Shiltina wasn’t saying this to seek sympathy, either.
“That’s right.”
The chestnut-haired girl spoke again.
“Ever since I witnessed my mother’s death, I’ve lived without expectations.”
“I knew clearly that many people didn’t agree with my mother’s ideals—not just Flan and classmates, but also my father, my stepmother, even my sister…”
“So I gradually learned to live independently in this world, avoiding connections with others, never expecting anyone to respond to my actions.”
“No matter how many opposing voices echoed in the academy, they couldn’t change my thinking.”
“If everything had gone on as before, I would’ve continued racing forward toward that distant goal of conquering the entire Nightworld—”
“Until I either reached it, or died halfway there.”
She paused slightly.
“But then, when you appeared, Rast, that path… changed a little.”
She looked at Rast.
“I started to have expectations for you, even if I didn’t notice it at first myself.”
“Me?”
“Mhm.”
Shiltina nodded gently.
“When you just came out of the Nightworld, your life force was so faint it could vanish at any moment. You were practically a skeleton.”
“For half a month, I stayed by your bedside, watching your unconscious, barely breathing body, devoid of any color…”
“For the first time, I felt unease, worry, even the fear of abandonment… emotions I had never felt before.”
“During that time, I asked myself countless times—what if you never woke up again? What would I do…”
She tucked a strand of chestnut hair behind her ear. “Fortunately, in the end, you woke up.”
“During that time, I thought about many things—you, and also Flan’s final words. I think, that panic and unease by your bed, that’s the feeling I could never truly understand or empathize with before.”
“I always asked others to endure, to persist, for the sake of that grand goal of saving the world. That was how I demanded it of myself—and of those around me.”
“But thinking about it now, when Flan saw her teammates perish in the Nightworld…”
“When Roya’s fiancée learned her lover would never return…”
“Their panic and weakness must have been far stronger, more heartbreaking than what I felt beside your bed.”
Shiltina paused again.
She looked with her light brown eyes at the crowd in the academy enjoying the various festivities of the celebration.
“When I first enrolled in my first year, Flan said, when the centennial celebration came, she would totally slack off and just enjoy a few days in the academy.”
“Now, I’ve buried her with my own hands in the Nightworld… but I want to see it for her, this celebration she long awaited.”
“Even if, in my past self’s eyes, it was no different from wasting life.”
She picked up a fallen ginkgo leaf from the bench and held it above her head.
Sunlight shone through it, illuminating the leaf’s veins in near-transparency.
“I still believe in my righteousness, and I will still move forward, unwavering, toward that unreachable destination in my heart.”
“But now, I think—”
“Maybe I can try to care a little… about the scenery along the way.”
“And the one who watches the scenery with me.”
The sun drifted further west, the shadows shifted.
The two bathed in warm sunlight, their shadows stretching long and far beneath their feet.